A lively Renaissance dance, typically in duple meter, popular in 16th and 17th-century France; also the music for such a dance.
From French 'branle,' meaning 'a shaking or swinging motion,' from Old French 'branler' meaning 'to shake.' The word traveled from French court culture into English through the Renaissance period.
The branle was a social dance that united people of different ranks at Renaissance courts—you didn't need a partner, just a willingness to follow the group's swaying motions, making it the medieval equivalent of a line dance!
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